IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test — October 2026 Test 7

Exam month: 2026-10

In this test

About this set: compiled and lightly cleaned up from real test material that test-takers recalled. IELTS draws from a global question pool, so this material circulates worldwide. To give you a complete, sittable test, material reported around the same period is assembled together — so a set may combine content from several exam dates, not one single sitting. Any audio is a recreation for practice. Organized for study convenience. Based on test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.

Reading Passage 1: Katsushika Hokusai

(A) Hokusai (born October 1760, Edo [now Tokyo], Japan--died May 10, 1848) was a Japanese master artist and printmaker of the ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") school. His early works represent the full spectrum of ukiyo-e art, including single-sheet prints of landscapes and screens, hand paintings, and surimono ("printed things"), such as greetings and announcements. Later he concentrated on the classical themes of the samurai and Chinese subjects. His famous print series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," published between 1825 and 1833, marked the summit in the history of the Japanese landscape print.
Early years
(B) Hokusai was born in Edo. He was reportedly connected with the Nakajima family, though he was not accepted as the true son of Nakajima and was believed to have been born to a concubine. He became interested in drawing at an early age and was possibly supported by a prestigious artisan family.
(C) Hokusai is said to have served in his youth as a clerk in a lending bookshop, and from 15 to 18 years of age he was apprenticed to a wood-block engraver. This early training in the book and printing trades obviously contributed to Hokusai’s artistic development as a printmaker.
(D) The earliest contemporary record of Hokusai dates from the year 1778, when, at the age of 18, he became a pupil of the leading ukiyo-e master, Katsukawa Shunshō. The young Hokusai’s first published works appeared the following year--actor prints of the kabuki theatre, the genre that Shunshō and the Katsukawa school practically dominated.
(E) To judge from the ages of his several children, Hokusai must have married in his mid-20s. Possibly under the influence of family life, from this period his designs tended to turn from prints of actors and women to historical and landscape subjects, especially uki-e (semi-historical landscapes using Western-influenced perspective techniques), as well as prints of children. The artist’s book illustrations and texts turned as well from the earlier themes to historical and didactic subjects. At the same time, Hokusai’s work in the surimono genre during the subsequent decade marks one of the early peaks in his career. Surimono were prints issued privately for special occasions--New Year’s and other greetings, musical programs and announcements, private verse selections--in limited editions and featuring immaculate printing of the highest quality.
Middle years
(F) In his middle years, Hokusai experienced significant artistic evolution and personal hardship. He began to distance himself from the Katsukawa school, partly due to the death of his master Shunshō in 1792 and partly due to his own burgeoning interest in other Japanese and Chinese artistic traditions. He started using the name "Hokusai" around 1797, and his work from this period shows a broader range of influences.
(G) A series of personal tragedies, including the death of his wife and his own financial struggles, seemed to fuel rather than hinder his artistic output. He moved residences frequently--some accounts say over ninety times in his life--often to avoid creditors. Despite this instability, the period from 1800 to 1820 was one of prodigious production. He created several major illustrated books, including the first volumes of his instructional manga (random drawings), which were sketchbooks of countless subjects--animals, people, mythological figures--intended as model books for other artists. These manga volumes became widely popular and demonstrated his incredible draftsmanship and observational skill.
Later years and legacy
(H) Hokusai’s most celebrated work was created in his seventies. It was during this period that he produced the iconic "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," which includes the world-renowned print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." This series was revolutionary for its bold composition, innovative use of the newly affordable Prussian blue pigment, and its focus on the daily lives of common people within dramatic landscapes. The series was so popular that ten additional prints were added to the original thirty-six.
(I) In his later writings, Hokusai expressed a profound belief in his own artistic growth with age. He famously wrote that by the age of 110, every dot and line he drew would be alive. Though he never reached that age, he continued working relentlessly until his death at 88. Hokusai’s influence extended far beyond Japan; after the country opened up in the Meiji period, his prints reached Europe and profoundly impacted the Impressionist and Art Nouveau movements. Artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh collected his prints and were inspired by his compositions and use of color.

Questions 1–6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1–6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

  1. 1. Hokusai’s series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" was published over an eight-year period.

    • A. TRUE
    • B. FALSE
    • C. NOT GIVEN

  2. 2. Hokusai was the biological son of the Nakajima family.

  3. 3. Hokusai’s apprenticeship with a wood-block engraver lasted for four years.

  4. 4. Hokusai’s first published works were landscapes.

  5. 5. Hokusai’s work in the surimono genre is considered one of the early high points of his career.

  6. 6. The death of his master Shunshō was the only reason Hokusai distanced himself from the Katsukawa school.

Questions 7–13

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Hokusai’s Life and Work
Early Training:
Worked as a clerk in a (7) ________.
Apprenticed to a (8) ________ from age 15 to 18
Artistic Shifts:
After marriage, his subjects changed to historical scenes and (9) ________, which used Western perspective
His surimono were known for their high-quality (10) ________.
Middle Years:
Began using the name ‘Hokusai’ around (11) ________.
Published (12) ________, which were sketchbooks for artists
Later Work:
His famous series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" used a new blue pigment called (13) ________.
His work greatly influenced European art movements, including Impressionism

Reading Passage 2: Corporate Social Responsibility

A An excellent definition was developed in the 1980s by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and used by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Nowadays, governments and companies need to account for the social consequences of their actions. As a result, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a priority for business leaders around the world. When a well-run business applies its vast resources and expertise to social problems that it understands and in which it has a stake, it can have a greater impact than any other organisation. The notion of licence to operate derives from the fact that every company needs tacit or explicit permission from governments, communities, and numerous other stakeholders to justify CSR initiatives to improve a company’s image, strengthen its brand, enliven morale and even raise the value of its stock.
B To advance CSR, we must root it in a broad understanding of the interrelationship between a corporation and society. Successful corporations need a healthy society. Education, health care, and equal opportunity are essential to a productive workforce. Safe products and working conditions not only attract customers but lower the internal costs of accidents. Efficient utilisation of land, water, energy, and other natural resources makes business more productive. Good government, the rule of law, and property rights are essential for efficiency and innovation. Strong regulatory standards protect both consumers and competitive companies from exploitation. Ultimately, a healthy society creates expanding demand for business, as more human needs are met and aspirations grow. Any business that pursues its ends at the expense of the society in which it operates will find its success to be illusory and ultimately temporary. At the same time, a healthy society needs successful companies. No social programme can rival the business sector when it comes to creating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that improve standards of living and social conditions over time.
C A company’s impact on society also changes over time, as social standards evolve and science progresses. Asbestos, now understood as a serious health risk, was thought to be safe in the early 1900s, given the scientific knowledge then available. Evidence of its risks gradually mounted for more than 50 years before any company was held liable for the harms it can cause. Many firms that failed to anticipate the consequences of this evolving body of research have been bankrupted by the results. No longer can companies be content to monitor only the obvious social impacts of today. Without a careful process for identifying evolving social effects of tomorrow, firms may risk their very survival.
D No business can solve all of society’s problems or bear the cost of doing so. Instead, each company must select issues that intersect with its particular business. Other social agendas are best left to those companies in other industries, NGOs, or government institutions that are better positioned to address them. The essential test that should guide CSR is not whether a cause is worthy but whether it presents an opportunity to create shared value – that is, a meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable to the business. Each company can identify the particular set of societal problems that it is best equipped to help resolve and from which it can gain the greatest competitive benefit.
E The best corporate citizenship initiatives involve far more than writing a cheque: they specify clear, measurable goals and track results over time. A good example is General Electric’s programme to adopt underperforming public high schools near several of its major U.S. facilities. The company contributes between $250,000 and $1 million over a five-year period to each school and makes in-kind donations as well. GE managers and employees take an active role by working with school administrators to assess needs and mentor or tutor students. In an independent study of ten schools in the programme between 1989 and 1999, nearly all showed significant improvement, while the graduation rate in four of the five worst-performing schools doubled from an average of 30% to 60%. Effective corporate citizenship initiatives such as this one create goodwill and improve relations with local governments and other important constituencies. What’s more, GE’s employees feel great pride in their participation. Their effect is inherently limited, however. No matter how beneficial the programme is, it remains incidental to the company’s business, and the direct effect on GE’s recruiting and retention is modest.
F Microsoft’s Working Connections partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is a good example of a shared-value opportunity arising from investments in context. The shortage of information-technology workers is a significant constraint on Microsoft’s growth; currently, there are more than 450,000 unfilled IT positions in the United States alone. Community colleges, with an enrolment of 11.6 million students, representing 45% of all U.S. undergraduates, could be a major solution. Microsoft recognises, however, that community colleges face special challenges: IT curricula are not standardised, technology used in classrooms is often outdated, and there are no systematic professional development programmes to keep faculty up to date. Microsoft’s $50 million five-year initiative was aimed at all three problems. In addition to contributing money and products, Microsoft sent employee volunteers to colleges to assess needs, contribute to curriculum development, and create faculty-development institutes. Microsoft has achieved results that have benefited many communities while having a direct and potentially significant impact on the company.
G At the heart of any strategy is a unique value proposition: a set of needs a company can meet for its chosen customers that its competitors cannot. The most strategic CSR occurs when a company adds a social dimension to its value proposition, making social impact integral to the overall strategy. Consider Whole Foods Market, whose value proposition is to sell organic, natural, and healthy food products to customers who are passionate about food and the environment. The company’s sourcing emphasises purchases from local farmers through each store’s procurement process. Buyers screen out foods containing any of nearly 100 common ingredients that the company considers unhealthy or environmentally damaging. The same standards apply to products made internally. Whole Foods’ commitment to natural and environmentally friendly operating practices extends well beyond sourcing. Stores are constructed using a minimum of virgin raw materials. Recently, the company purchased renewable wind-energy credits equal to 100% of its electricity use in all of its stores and facilities, the only Fortune 500 company to offset its electricity consumption entirely. Spoiled produce and biodegradable waste are trucked to regional centres for composting. Whole Foods’ vehicles are being converted to run on biofuels. Even the cleaning products used in its stores are environmentally friendly. And through its philanthropy, the company has created the Animal Compassion Foundation to develop more natural and humane ways of raising farm animals. In short, nearly every aspect of the company’s value chain reinforces the social dimensions of its value proposition, distinguishing Whole Foods from its competitors.

Questions 14–20

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A–G.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 14–20 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i How CSR may help one business to expand
ii CSR in many aspects of a company’s business
iii A CSR initiative without a financial gain
iv Lack of action by the state on social issues
v Drivers or pressures motivate companies to address CSR
vi The past illustrates businesses are responsible for future outcomes
vii Companies applying CSR should be selective
viii Reasons that business and society benefit each other
  1. 14

    Paragraph A

  2. 15

    Paragraph B

  3. 16

    Paragraph C

  4. 17

    Paragraph D

  5. 18

    Paragraph E

  6. 19

    Paragraph F

  7. 20

    Paragraph G

Questions 21–22

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The implementation of CSR – How?
Promotion of CSR requires the understanding of interdependence between business and society.
Corporations’ workers’ productivity generally needs health care, education, and (21) ________.
Restrictions imposed by government and companies both protect consumers from being treated unfairly.
Improvement of the safety standard can reduce the (22) ________ of accidents in the workplace.
Similarly, society becomes a pool of more human needs and aspirations.

Questions 23–26

Look at the following socially responsible activities and the list of companies below.

Match each activity with the correct company, A–C.

NB You may choose any company more than once.

List of Companies
A General Electric
B Microsoft
C Whole Foods Market
  1. 23

    Disposable waste

  2. 24

    The way the company purchases its goods

  3. 25

    Helping the under-developed

  4. 26

    Ensuring that people have the latest information

Reading Passage 3: Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget spent much of his professional life listening to children, watching children and poring over reports of researchers around the world who were doing the same. He found, to put it most succinctly, that children don’t think like grown-ups. After thousands of interactions with young people often barely old enough to talk, Piaget began to suspect that behind their cute and seemingly irrational utterances were thought processes that had their own kind of order and their own special logic. Einstein called it “a discovery so simple that only a genius could have thought of it.”
Although not an educational reformer, Piaget championed a way of thinking about children that provided the foundation for today’s education-reform movements. It was a shift comparable to the way modern anthropology displaced stories of primitive tribes being ‘noble savages’ and ‘cannibals’. One might say that Piaget was the first to take children’s thinking seriously.
He has been revered by generations of teachers inspired by the belief that children are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge (as traditional pedagogical theory had it) but active builders of knowledge—little scientists who are constantly creating and testing their own hypotheses about the world. And though he may not be as famous as Sigmund Freud or even B. F. Skinner, his influence on psychology may be longer lasting.
In 1920, while doing research in a child-psychology laboratory in Paris, Piaget noticed that children of the same age made similar errors on intelligence tests. Fascinated by their reasoning processes, he began to suspect that the key to human knowledge might be discovered by observing how the child’s mind develops. On his return to Switzerland he began watching children play, scrupulously recording their words and actions as their minds raced to find reasons for why things are the way they are. In one of his most famous experiments, Piaget asked children, ‘What makes the wind?’ A typical dialogue would be:
Piaget: What makes the wind?
Julia: The trees.
Piaget: How do you know?
Julia: I saw them waving their arms.
Piaget: How does that make the wind?
Julia: (waving her hand in front of his face) Like this. Only they are bigger. And there are lots of trees.
Piaget recognised that five-year-old Julia’s beliefs, while not correct by any adult criterion, are not ‘incorrect’ either. They are entirely sensible and coherent within the framework of the child’s way of knowing. Classifying them as ‘true’ or ‘false’ misses the point and shows a lack of respect for the child. What Piaget was after was a theory that the wind dialogue demonstrated coherence, ingenuity and the practice of a kind of explanatory principle (in this case by referring to body actions) that stands young children in very good stead when they don’t know enough or don’t have enough skill to handle the kind of explanation that grown-ups prefer.
Piaget was not an educator and never laid down rules about how to intervene in such situations. But his work strongly suggests that the automatic reaction of putting the child right may well be counter-productive. If their theories are always greeted by ‘Nice try, but this is how it really is…’ they might give up after a while on making theories. As Piaget put it, ‘children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them something too quickly, we keep them from inventing it themselves.’
Disciples of Piaget have a tolerance for—indeed a fascination with—children’s primitive laws of physics: that things disappear when they are out of sight; that the moon and the sun follow you around; that big things float and small things sink. Einstein was intrigued by Piaget’s findings, especially by the idea that seven-year-olds insist that going faster can take more time—perhaps because this, like Einstein’s own theories of relativity, runs so contrary to common sense.
Although every teacher in training still memorises Piaget’s successive stages of childhood development, the greater part of Piaget’s work is less well known, perhaps because schools of education regard it as ‘too deep’ for teachers. Piaget never thought of himself as a child psychologist. His real interest was epistemology—the theory of knowledge—which, like physics, was considered a branch of philosophy until Piaget came along and made it a science.
Through epistemology, Piaget explored multiple ways of knowing. He acknowledged them and examined them non-judgementally, yet with a philosopher’s analytic rigour. Since Piaget, the territory has been widely colonised by those who write about women’s ways of knowing, Afrocentric ways of knowing, even the computer’s ways of knowing. Indeed, artificial intelligence and the information-processing model of the mind owe more to Piaget than its proponents may realise.
The core of Piaget is his belief that looking carefully at how knowledge develops in children will elucidate the nature of knowledge in general. Whether this has in fact led to deeper understanding remains, like everything about Piaget, controversial. In the past decade, Piaget has been vigorously challenged by the current fashion of viewing knowledge as an intrinsic property of the brain. Ingenious experiments have demonstrated that newborn infants already have some of the knowledge that Piaget believed children constructed. But for those, like me, who still see Piaget as the giant in the field of cognitive theory, the difference between what the baby brings and what the adult has is so immense that the new discoveries do not significantly reduce the gap, but only increase the mystery.

Questions 27–31

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.

  1. 27

    In the second paragraph, the writer mentions the example of modern anthropology to illustrate

    • A. the universality of Piaget’s insights into the workings of the mind.
    • B. the similarity between children’s thought-processing in different cultures.
    • C. how Piaget’s work represents a crucial turning-point in our approach to education.
    • D. how Piaget’s work has aided our understanding of humankind’s evolution from primitive origins.
  2. 28

    According to the writer, what point is illustrated by the dialogue about the wind?

    • A. The factual accuracy of what children say is of minor significance.
    • B. Children want to learn about scientific principles.
    • C. Children’s reasoning processes can be amusing to adults.
    • D. Children often pretend that they know the answers to questions.
  3. 29

    Piaget believed in the importance of

    • A. preventing children from making false assumptions.
    • B. giving children honest feedback on their hypotheses.
    • C. showing children how to formulate their own ideas about the world.
    • D. maintaining children’s confidence in their ability to interpret the world.
  4. 30

    What does the writer suggest in the seventh paragraph?

    • A. Children’s sense of their surroundings changes as they get older.
    • B. Children are able to grasp certain complex ideas as well as adults are.
    • C. Even apparently irrational ideas can be worthy of interest.
    • D. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best.
  5. 31

    The writer’s main purpose is to

    • A. outline Piaget’s contribution to a range of scientific fields.
    • B. summarise how education has benefited from Piaget’s findings.
    • C. discuss Piaget’s role in the development of 20th-century psychology.
    • D. express doubts about a number of Piaget’s theories.

Questions 32–36

Complete the summary using the list of words, A–I, below.

Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 32–36 on your answer sheet.

Piaget maintained that children’s mental processes were far more (32) ________ than they might appear.
He encouraged the view that a child was not a ‘blank slate’ waiting to be filled with information, but rather a systematic builder of knowledge who regularly tries out his or her own (33) ________ about the world.
Piaget’s impact on the area of (34) ________ could well outlast that of more celebrated pioneers of this discipline.
Despite doubts cast over his ideas by the current view associating knowledge exclusively with the (35) ________, the effects of his work are still strong today.
His principles are still widely used in the professional development of (36) ________.
A correct
B theories
C brain
D simple
E teachers
F psychology
G logical
H thought
I philosophers

Questions 37–40

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

  1. 37

    Piaget’s early work in Paris involved innovative research techniques.

    • A. YES
    • B. NO
    • C. NOT GIVEN
  2. 38

    Piaget gave clear guidelines as to how adults should give information to children.

  3. 39

    Piaget made a significant contribution to the field of epistemology.

  4. 40

    We still have much to learn about the nature of knowledge.

Answer sheet

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Show answer key

Answer key

  1. 1. A

    The passage says the series 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' was published between 1825 and 1833, which is an eight-year period, so the answer is TRUE.

  2. 2. B

    The passage explains Hokusai was 'not accepted as the true son of Nakajima and was believed to have been born to a concubine,' so he was not the biological son; the answer is FALSE.

  3. 3. B

    The passage states Hokusai was apprenticed to a wood-block engraver 'from 15 to 18 years of age,' which is three years, not four, so the answer is FALSE.

  4. 4. B

    The passage says Hokusai’s first published works were 'actor prints of the kabuki theatre,' not landscapes, so the answer is FALSE.

  5. 5. A

    The passage says Hokusai’s work in the surimono genre 'marks one of the early peaks in his career,' so the answer is TRUE.

  6. 6. B

    The passage says Hokusai distanced himself from the Katsukawa school 'partly due to the death of his master Shunshō in 1792 and partly due to his own burgeoning interest in other Japanese and Chinese artistic traditions,' so there was more than one reason; the answer is FALSE.

  7. 7. lending bookshop

  8. 8. wood-block engraver

  9. 9. uki-e

  10. 10. printing

  11. 11. 1797

  12. 12. manga

  13. 13. Prussian blue

  14. 14. v

  15. 15. viii

  16. 16. vi

  17. 17. vii

  18. 18. iii

  19. 19. i

  20. 20. ii

  21. 21. equal opportunity

  22. 22. internal costs

  23. 23. C

  24. 24. C

  25. 25. A

  26. 26. B

  27. 27. C

    The passage compares Piaget’s impact to the shift in anthropology, showing his work was a crucial turning-point in how we approach education, so the answer is 'C. how Piaget’s work represents a crucial turning-point in our approach to education.'

  28. 28. A

    The passage says Julia’s answer is 'not “incorrect” either' and that classifying them as true or false 'misses the point,' so the factual accuracy is of minor significance; the answer is 'A.'

  29. 29. D

    The passage says if children’s theories are always corrected, 'they might give up after a while on making theories,' so Piaget believed in maintaining children’s confidence; the answer is 'D.'

  30. 30. C

    The passage says Piaget’s followers are fascinated by children’s 'primitive laws of physics,' showing even irrational ideas can be interesting; the answer is 'C.'

  31. 31. A

    The passage discusses Piaget’s influence on psychology, epistemology, and even artificial intelligence, so the main purpose is to outline his contribution to a range of scientific fields; the answer is 'A.'

  32. 32. G

  33. 33. B

  34. 34. F

  35. 35. C

  36. 36. E

  37. 37. C

  38. 38. B

  39. 39. A

  40. 40. A

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